This invention relates to an underwater rescue device designed to allow a rescuer to deliver air in a life threatening situation to a submerged boat, airplane, automobile, or other submerged vessels. There exists a great need for a convenient portable tool that can puncture aluminum, sheet metal, plexiglass, plastic or other material making up the body of a vessel or vehicle and that can be connected conveniently to an air supply, so that air can be delivered rapidly to the interior of the vehicle or vessel.
Sometimes, as a result of an accident, a car rolls into the river or other body of water and submerges, threatening passengers and drivers underwater with a limited amount of air present in the interior of the car. Sometimes, a boat sinks, and even though it is water tight, it also traps persons on the boat within the sealed area with a limited amount of air for breathing.
Under such circumstances, it is the utmost important to deliver air into the submerged vehicle at the earliest possible time. However, a rescue operation involving retrieval of the submerged vehicle may take some time and the trapped persons do not survive for such time. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a tool which can puncture a wall of the submerged vessel and introduce fresh air into the interior of the vessel and save lives before necessary equipment for retrieving the submerged vehicle can arrive at the scene of the accident. Such device must be portable and easily connectable to a portable air supply, such as for example, an air tank of a scuba diver so that the divers who first arrived at the scene have a chance to save lives prior to application of complicated equipment.
Sometimes, the air needs to be delivered into the submerged vessel to simply make it buoyant so that it can float up to the surface of the water with the help of the sufficient amount of air delivered into the interior of the submerged vessel.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a portable device for delivery of air into an interior of a submerged vehicle or allow the occupants to breathe or to float the submerged object up to the surface.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a rescue tool that can be connected easily to conventional scuba air tanks.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description of the invention.